Manganese alloy



' vanous lmpunmes ran as hlgh as 3 to 5% of the is ductile and strong and, from a large number 35 ,PatentedMay28, ;1940, 4 2,202,012

UNITED STATESPATENT OFFECE Chicago Development Company, ChicagmIlL, a corporation of Illinois 'No Drawing. ApplicationMay 5, 1937, Serial No. 140,817. Renewed October 20, 1939 6 c aims. (cl. 75-134) My invention relates to an improved alloy of modified, so that for most purposes the propmanganese having for many purposes the most erties are greatly improved in a product in which advantageous properties of some white metal althe manganese is substituted for nickel. Indeed, loys heretofore produced, and in addition propthe product of my invention has many of the 5 erties or combination of properties not possessed advantages of alloys of nickel heretofore pro- 5 by any alloys heretofore produced with which I duced, but it has still additional advantages and am familiar. combinations of properties which make my new Manganese has long, been known as a metal alloy adapt-able for use in ways for which no of a generally white color when recovered in' a alloy heretofore produced was suited. The dif- 10 substantially pure condition, and because of its ference between the alloys of my invention and 10 white color, it has been suggested as a substitute those produced with commercial manganese as for other types of white metal in the preparation known and utilized heretofore is so marked as of certain types'of alloys. As a constituent of to indicate that an entirely difierent kind of non-ferrous alloys, however, manganese has alloy is produced.

l5 heretofore been of little or no commercial or prac- An example of an improved alloy made in actical value because invariably it was found to cordance with my invention and having many impart undesirable properties to the alloy when unusual'and desirable properties is as follows:

used in appreciable proportions. The most 010- Per ent jectionable property imparted to the alloy by Nickel (commercial) 20 the USE 0f manganese was br tt e es but still Manganese (highly purified) 50 20 other undesirable'results were obtained. Copper (commercial) so The principal ob ectv of my lnventlon 1s to utl- 'This alloy had-S many properties which are found lzinfiiiffliii 1211133855055? transit:fastidious: this; gggg new unu-sua'l combmatmn of prop average hardness of 56 on the Rockwell B scale I have found that commercially Pm ;if 253 fillii iil wtt iii"ME? nese as produced heretofore contained Sigmfl" the llardness of the same sample is increased to cant proportions of impurities, principally iron, carbon aluminum and silicon with at times abpve 100 on the Rockwell B In adqltlon' trams other elments Such for example this alloy possesses unusual plastic properties at sulphur While I found none of these slfistances red heat being Very easily Shape at that temperature. It can accordingly be hot pressed into any suitable or desired form very in commercially pure manganese in numerically large proportions, I found that the sum of the economically and simply. The resulting product total manganese product. I moreover discovered that if manganese be prepared in a chemically of tests Whlch I have made seems to suffer no pure condition, so that the total amount of iron, injury whgtever its mechanical properties by carbon aluminum and silicon' is less than 1% reasqn of Its havmg been deformed While m F but preferably less than .3%, the alloy produced gi igg 1 gs gggg f g g g f g g fifi fi 40 g g fig ?1 :53: 3.ggfigg fig igi g gfigg: ness, tensile strength, corrosion resistance and cially pure manganese heretofore employed. I appearance it is very Smtable alloy for makmg have found that for the bestv results the sum small parts ,of the type. heretofore g to 1 of the iron, carbon, silicon and aluminum, should 3:; :fiiig g gi ggfiigf fiifi gfi if 45 comprise less than of i maPFanese metal ing a decorative and/or useful function in the i s 'fi g gg ggg z g fg g rggg iy g gg automobile industries, may be produced simply p and economically. manganese metal w For the further guidance of those skilled in I h found; P y can manganese the art, I shall refer more in detail now to the 50 in a pure condltlon, be substituted for all or a source f manganese employed in my improved large proportion of the nickel in some types of alloys, From relatively large number of analalloys without loss of corrosion resistance, yses of commercial samples of manganese, I strength or silver color, but that, in addition, the give below two which may be in general, considworking qualities of the new alloy aregreatly ered representative: p 55 working properties.

Commercial sample N0. 1 Per cent Manganese 96.7% Silicon 0.76 Carbon -1 0.03, Sulphur 0.09 Aluminum 0.88

Commercial sample No. 2

, Per cent Manganese 94.71 Silicon 1.56 Carbon 0.18 Aluminum trace It will be noted that the sample No. 1 contained somewhat over 1.5% total impurities present as silicon, carbon and aluminum, and that sample No. 2 contained close to 2% of these three metals. Obviously, the analysis of the two samples is not given in detail for the reason that impurities other than those shown in these two particular samples do not appear to be significant. The impurities shown, but principally the silicon, carbon and aluminum (with iron which was not found in these particular samples) have very marked detrimental efiect on alloys in which manganese is employed in relatively large proportions. If either of the two samples of commercial manganese be employed in the specific alloy example described hereinabove, the resulting product will be found to have very poor working properties in that it will be substantially Impossible to cold work it to any extent whatsoever and when formed to shape by any method it will be extremely brittle. When, however, either of the samples of manganese is purified by distillation in vacuum so that the purified product contains less than .3% of the sum of the three elements as impurities, then all of the desirable properties resulting from the use of manganese in significant proportions are again obtainable.

Manganese, suitable for carrying out my invention, may be produced in several ways. The distillation of commercial manganese in vacuum in general is too costly a process for commercial adaptation. A satisfactory grade of manganese can be produced by electrolysis of pure manganese sulphate solutions. Since the development of my invention, some methods for carrying out these operations have been published in the literature and so I deem it unnecessary to describe in detail the manner of producing a suitable pure grade of manganese for use in my. invention.

I have given hereinabove a specific example of a nickel manganese copper alloy having extremely valuable properties, particularly resistance to corrosion, pleasing color, adequate hard ness, a relatively great tensile strength, and of remarkable significance, extremely valuable It should not be assumed that substantially the identical results cannot be obtained by modifying somewhat the proportions of the alloy constituents. I have found that a very satisfactory range is nickel 15 to manganese 45 to 50% and copper 25 to As in the specific examples given, the nickel and copper may be the usual commercial grades, but the manganese is a highly purified product such as described hereinabove wherein the total proportion of iron, ca'rbon, silicon and aluminum should be not more than .3% of the manganese metal, and none of these impurities is present in proportions greater than .1%. Within these proportions substantially the identical proporties found in the specific examples given are obtainable, with very little modification with the range shown.

I find also that I am able to produce a very satisfactory alloy for my purposes by utilizing only manganese and copper. Moreover, the proportions of copper may be modified considerably and for the most part alloys are obtained which, in general, have working properties much superior to any alloys similar in general characteristics with which I am familiar. I have found that the following range of proportions is a fair guide for the metallurgist in the selection of alloy constituents in order to produce, in general, easily worked alloys of fair to excellent tensile strength, hardness, color, resistance to corrosion and the like:

Per cent Nickel 0 to 70 Manganese 30 to 70 Copper 10 to 40 While I prefer to operate generally within the range given in the more limited range of the second examplegiven, I consider my invention to extend to the somewhat broader range wherein the proportion of nickel may be cut substantially to the point where a binary system results.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:-

1. An alloy of nickel, manganese and copper, said alloy being ductile when cold, containing from 10% to 40% copper, from 5% to 30% nickel, and substantially all of the remainder being'a highly purified manganese, said manganese containing not more than 0.1% by weight of any of the elements iron, carbon, silicon, and aluminum.

2. An alloy of nickel, manganese and copper, said alloy being ductile when cold, containing from 25% to 35% copper, from 15% to 25% nickel, and the balance comprising from to of a highly purified manganese, said manganese containing not more than 0.1% by weight of any of the elements iron, carbon, silicon, and aluminum.

3. An alloy in accordance with claim 2, wherein the total proportion of iron, carbon, silicon and aluminum present in the manganese does not exceed 0.3%.

4. An alloy of nickel, manganese and copper, said alloy being ductile when cold, containing approximately 30% copper, 20% nickel, and 50% oi! a highly purified manganese, said manganese containing less than 1.0% by weight of the total of the elements iron, carbon, silicon, and aluminum.

5. An aloy of nickel, manganese and copper, said alloy being ductile when cold and containing -30% to 70% manganese, said manganese containing less than 1.0% of a total of iron, carbon, silicon and aluminum, the balance of the alloy being nickel and copper, the nickel being present in amounts of 5% to 30% and the copper being present in amounts of 10% to 40% based on the weight of the entire alloy. I 6. An alloy of nickel, manganese and copper,

JAMES R LONG. 

